Ashutosh Gowariker is in the process of finalizing a few projects for his next directorial and we hear, that among these, one is based on the life of young Buddha, called Prince Siddhartha. Buzz is that Tiger Shroff has been approached to play the title role which will revolve around the life of the young prince till he attains the enlightened state and becomes known as Buddha.

Says a trade source, “Ashutosh has finalized three scripts among his directorial next and one of them is Prince Siddhartha. As it’s a period film based around the fifth and sixth centuries BC, the film will require intensive research, which Ashu is known to do for his films. Every time he has done a period film he has actually gone and lived in the places where his characters have developed. The story of the young prince who renounced his riches to live an ascetic’s life fascinated the filmmaker and hence he started working on it. He feels that Tiger Shroff, with his innocent face and yet the physique of a prince is suited for the role. Though both are in talks about the character, remuneration and dates, nothing is confirmed as yet as Tiger is also busy shooting for Baaghi 2 and YRF’s next directed by Siddharth Anand and co-starring Hrithik Roshan, which begins shoot from early next year.”

Who was Prince Siddhartha?Prince Siddhartha Gautama was born in the royal Shakya family, in the year 563 BCE, in Lumbini (located in present-day Nepal), at the foothills of the Himalayas. At the time of his birth, sages told his father that Siddhartha would either become a great king or an enlightened teacher if he saw the old age, sickness, death, and a wandering ascetic. The king tried to shield the young prince from these four realities of life, but when he was 29, Siddhartha went out with his charioteer and encountered suffering for the first time. He saw the four sights as foretold by the sages: a man bent with old age, a person afflicted with sickness, a corpse, and a wandering ascetic and decided to renounce his material wealth for the life of an ascetic. Young Siddhartha gained enlightenment at the age of 35, under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya and from then, came to be known as the Buddha or The Enlightened One.